Peugeot and Lexus emerged as the standout manufacturers on Friday at Spa-Francorchamps, securing Hyperpole positions for the 6 Hours of Spa in both FIA World Endurance Championship categories.
Once again, drivers tackled the 7.004-kilometre Ardennes circuit in dry conditions despite threatening skies overhead, with rain still potentially expected for Saturday’s race.
The battle against the clock became increasingly intense throughout the day, although there were no major interruptions or incidents. In the end, Malthe Jakobsen and Hadrien David claimed top honours in their respective classes.
Hypercar: first-ever Hyperpole for Peugeot
In the Hypercar category, Peugeot Sport celebrated its first-ever Hyperpole thanks to an outstanding performance from Malthe Jakobsen, who experienced both highs and lows across qualifying.
During the opening qualifying session, the young Danish driver nearly threw everything away after spinning on cold tyres immediately after leaving the pits. However, he bounced back impressively in the decisive Hyperpole session.
Driving the Peugeot 9X8 #94, the talented youngster delivered a lap of 2:00.653, placing the French LMH prototype at the top for the first time ever. Jakobsen narrowly defeated Will Stevens, who pushed hard to steal pole position in the Cadillac-Jota #12 but ultimately missed out by just 0.043 seconds.
For a long time, the Alpine #35 and #36 entries driven by Charles Milesi and Jules Gounon looked capable of securing the front row after initially occupying the top positions. However, both cars eventually dropped to the second row, with the top four covered by only 0.185 seconds. Jack Aitken completed the top five in the Cadillac #38.
In sixth and seventh place, both three tenths away from pole, were the Aston Martin Valkyrie #009 and #007 driven by Marco Sørensen and Harry Tincknell. Behind them came the Ferrari #50 of Antonio Fuoco, who was the only Ferrari driver able to reach the final Hyperpole shootout.
Considering Jakobsen’s performance, Stoffel Vandoorne’s ninth place in the Peugeot #93 was somewhat disappointing. Dries Vanthoor completed the top ten in the BMW #15 and also came under investigation for allegedly impeding a rival during the initial qualifying phase.
The 15-minute qualifying session itself was extremely competitive. Charles Milesi initially led the way with a 2:00.808, while Sørensen’s improvement on his final attempt elevated him from 12th to eighth place. That final improvement eliminated Sheldon Van Der Linde, who dropped to 11th in the BMW #20, missing out by only 0.010 seconds to Tincknell’s Valkyrie.
The biggest disappointments of the session were undoubtedly Toyota and Ferrari.
Kamui Kobayashi could manage only 12th place in the Toyota GR010 Hybrid #7, finishing 0.784 seconds off the pace and also coming under investigation for allegedly failing to follow pit exit procedures. Brendon Hartley fared even worse in the #8 Toyota, ending the session 16th and more than 1.3 seconds behind.
Meanwhile, Robert Kubica could only place the AF Corse Ferrari 499P #83 in 13th position, while Antonio Giovinazzi ended up 15th in the factory Ferrari #51 after also suffering a moment exiting Pouhon while fighting to avoid elimination.
Completing the Hypercar classification were the Genesis entries, with Mathieu Jaminet placing the #19 car 14th, while Pipo Derani finished last in the #17 machine, 2.4 seconds off the pace.
LMGT3: Lexus shines once again
Just like last year, a Lexus will start from pole position in the LMGT3 category.
During an excellent day for the ASP team’s RC F entries, Hadrien David secured his first Hyperpole in the series with a 2:16.612 aboard the #78 Lexus, beating the Heart of Racing Aston Martin #27 of Zach Robichon by 0.194 seconds.
In the session reserved for Silver-rated drivers, the Proton Competition Ford Mustangs secured third and fifth positions with Ben Tuck and Giammarco Levorato respectively, separated by the #87 Lexus-ASP of Clemens Schmid.
Schmid cleverly positioned himself behind Simon Mann’s AF Corse Ferrari #21 during his flying lap. Mann, however, attempted to keep the German driver behind him for almost the entire lap before finally allowing him through at the Bus Stop chicane, effectively giving him a slipstream all the way through Blanchimont.
Mann eventually finished sixth, 0.651 seconds behind the pole time. Behind him were the BMW-WRT #32 of Sean Gelael and the Iron Lynx Mercedes #61 driven by Rui Andrade. Timur Boguslavskiy in the Manthey Porsche #91 and Salih Yoluç in the TF Sport Corvette #34 completed the top ten.
In the opening 15-minute Q1 session, reserved for Bronze-rated drivers, the fastest time went to Răzvan Petru Umbrărescu in the Lexus #87 with a lap of 2:17.225. His teammate Tom Van Rompuy narrowly survived elimination in 10th place aboard the #78 Lexus.
The unfortunate driver eliminated was Alexander West, who missed the cut by only 0.067 seconds in the Garage 59 McLaren #58. The car will line up alongside the Manthey Porsche #92 of Yasser Shahin, whose 911 is carrying success ballast following its podium finish at Imola.
The same issue affected first-round winner Anthony McIntosh, who could manage only 17th place in the BMW-WRT #69. The only driver behind him was Thomas Flohr, who once again endured a difficult qualifying session in the AF Corse Ferrari #54.
The Heart of Racing Aston Martin #23 of Gray Newell finished 13th, ahead of the TF Sport Corvette #33 driven by Blake McDonald, the Garage 59 McLaren #10 of Antares Au, and Johannes Zelger, who placed the Iron Lynx Mercedes #79 in 16th place, nearly one second away from progressing.
The start of the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps is scheduled for Saturday at 14:00 local time.
Leave a Reply